Was bored and tried something of interest

[shortline]

Andy,
Have you collected enough data yet to calculate your return on investment? Does the Tarm emit any visible smoke while burning the briquets?

 

[Briquetmaker]

I haven't pulled it all together yet. I want to put an hour meter on the oil boiler to keep tabs on the run time while I'm away. I know I burned about $5800 in fuel oil last heating season. This winter I'm at $850. A rough guess would be about 5 years for ROI. I see hardly any smoke when the briquets get going.

 

[Briquetmaker]

I wanted to post a picture of the briquets burning

 

[shortline]

I haven't pulled it all together yet. I want to put an hour meter on the oil boiler to keep tabs on the run time while I'm away. I know I burned about $5800 in fuel oil last heating season. This winter I'm at $850. A rough guess would be about 5 years for ROI.

Wow the Weimar must have cost a shiny penny! But I get excited about heating with waste. Great pics too! Thanks for sharing.

 

[Briquetmaker]

Thank you everyone for the great comments. It was a fun project. I plan on a few tweaks in the summer and adding another 200gal of storage. My briquet press was a no-brainer, got rid of a 48ft trailer in my yard and a 10hp blower to get the saw dust into it and not to mention swapping out the trailers in the winter/rotten weather. That alone saved me about 2-3 thousand a year. I had gotten quotes to replace my oil boiler and pre plumb for the wood boiler coming in at 19 - 22K. They're nuts. I bought both boilers and all the parts for $19,500 and did the install on my own. The Tarm guys were a great help. I followed the Tarm drawings as close as possible and got great support from them as I was doing the install. It's hard trying to take a 1D drawing and putting into 3D. My head was spinning but when I got it it got even more exiting until my shoulders couldn't take threading any more pipe. I think in the long run it was a great thing to do. The first thing I do when I get to work is turn the BLT control to wood only. $3.20 a gal@ 2.5 gal/hr. I do want to put the hour meter on the oil boiler to really get an accurate cost. Anyway thanks again

 

[kielka]

Briquetmaker, What year scandtec is that and model? looks Mine is a solo plus 40 that i bought in 2008. Just curious cause it looks different. BTW.... Absolutely AWESOME Boiler room!! I installed my boiler is in a shed outside and and let's just say your install is very nice I told my wife to check out that pic and she just goes "your jealous, aren't you". I just said yes, lol. looks like a great install for 19500. Mine ran me about 10,000 or so.

 

[Briquetmaker]

Mine is a 2009 Solo Plus 60 and because of the hot fires with the briquets I added turbulators. Stack temps have been more steady with them

 

[PassionForFire&Water]

I'm kind of curious about this. How would this work (pellets) in a non-gasser boiler?

I tried this 4 to 5 years ago.
It works great as long as you have primary combustion air on top, not an underburn. You need a top down burn.
With an underburn the pellets suffocate the fire and you get a lot of smoke.

Only one practical problem, all pellets are sold in plastic bags.
It would be easier if they would make them available in paper bags.
I don't like the idea of buying bulk and bag them myself